Fire, water, air and earth - the four elements of which all being on earth is composed. It was the philosopher Thales of Miletus who first stated this view. He was followed by further philosophers who concurred with what he said. They included famous names such as Plato and his disciple Aristotle. Plato assigned geometrical bodies to the elements that share the phenomenon of all their edges, angles and sides being identical in nature. The hexahedron or cube, to give it its more mundane name, is one of a total of five forms now referred to as Platonic bodies. But let’s leave such philosophical-mathematical considerations for the time being and turn to the world of contemporary architecture.
We find ourselves at Engelsbrand, a village in the northern Black Forest region where the architect Florian Stocker has undertaken an attempt to lend material expression to the philosophical ideas of thinkers like Aristotle, Plato, Descartes and Heidegger. He has converted a house standing on just over 2¼ acres into two smaller flats around which he developed spacious landscaped grounds complete with pavilions and pool. Bodies of water snake their way organically through site, flow between the two halves of the conversion as streams linked by a bridge, and gradually broaden to form ponds. The ensemble is complemented by a number of smaller structures that share the philosophical and topographical ideas of the overall complex.
As Florian Stocker sees it, the scheme as a whole reflects the unhurried search for the “quinta essentia”, the fifth being, the element that unites all the other elements. Aristotle believed he had found this element in the ether. Over two thousand years later, Stocker has gone back out in search of this quintessence and has attempted to trace it with a mix of everything from classic forms such as the tetrahedron and the hexahedron to artificial landscapes. In his view, architecture needs to “fit in with its pre-existing context, to evolve out of the conditions of a location”.
It would be worth looking in great detail into each and every structural and design element in the Topoi Engelsbrand. The conversion of the existing house observing the principle of “panta rei” (all is in flux) would be enough on its own to justify extensive philosophically architectural consideration. But suffice it at this juncture (almost culpably so) to honour the “genius loci” of the overall property with a quote by Goethe drawn directly from Heraclites: “Half a rainy day, and there’s your / Pleasant valley not the same, / None could swim that very river / Twice, so quick the changes came.”
We, though, are focusing on one specific topos, the “Hexahedron” house on sloping terrain that comes into a view as soon as the estate is entered. The hexahedron gives the new building both its name and form. Completed in the summer of 2009 and covering 220 square metres of floorspace, its rigorously geometrical forms make it instantly noticeable. The slightly raised cube, made up of fair-faced concrete panels regularly interspersed with formwork ties, has a geometrical severity reminiscent of a watch-tower standing guard over the land behind. Narrow viewing slits alternate with large window-fronts to relativise the sense of severity.
To paraphrase Aristotle, it’s a case of material yearning for form we are dealing with here. Aristotle sees material and form as belonging irrevocably together, being naturally coexistent as it were. In his own words: “If a house were a natural product, it would come to be in the same way as it is actually made through human labour”. Florian Stocker applies this idea to his architecture and creates a building as a counterpoint to the land around but one that nevertheless seeks to enter into dialogue with same. “Architecture that fails to establish interdependencies, that eschews all discourse with its location, is invariably poor”, Stocker argues. It is precisely the conscious use of contrast that helps change a place to the good.
A further counterpoint to the chaste outer shell: the playful interiors of the hexahedron, into which sunlight surges through windows two storeys high. Low floor heights alternate with high airy spaces. The interior derives its distinctive edge from a number of special features. There is room to work in the negotiable library, whilst a fitted bench in the fireside corner is just right for switching off on. A further retreat takes the form of alcove seating in the bathroom. White interior walls, light-brown timber flooring and canny points of focus in wood and metal yield a classy environment. Use has been made of locally sourced materials such as Maulbronn sandstone and, notably, the wood of a very special oak tree. It had stood here for two centuries before it was struck by lightning and summarily felled. It has now become part of the hexahedron and hence also part of one of the Platonic elements.
The scheme started with the four elements and culminates in a four-point guide to good grip. Mr Stocker, after all, is not the only one to champion philosophy in his Topoi Engelsbrand. FSB, too, puts in its philosophical oar. Just as Aristotle once aspired to grasp the world, so FSB is now intent on grasping the holding process. For a handle to be gripped properly, FSB feels, it needs to have four things: a thumb rest, a forefinger furrow, support for the ball of the thumb and a bit of bulk. The 1144 model door handle used for the hexahedron was designed by Jasper Morrison to meet all these requirements. The eyes relax and a hand goes into action: the thumb falls into place, the forefinger finds its furrow; the hand makes to grip and finds plenty to grip hold of. Door handle 1144 is pleasing to eyes and hands alike. Material and form are successfully conjoined, just as they are in the hexahedron as a whole. Just as Mr Stocker succeeds in embedding his architecture in a pregiven context, so door handle 1144 blends in with its structural context. Maybe even Aristotle would see one of his ideas put to effect in the hexahedron or, rather, in the Topoi Engelsbrand in its entirety - that of a natural entity having been brought to completion by the human hand.
Photos: Brigida Gonzáles
